I'm Santa

"If you believe in the spirit of Christmas, you believe in true magic."

-Toni Sorenson

What is the best part about being a parent during the holiday season?

Well, honestly, I get to create magic for my children. I know not everyone practices Santa in their homes but I love getting into the spirit of the holidays by having my children write Santa, a.k.a me, a letter with what they want for Christmas this year. But that is just the beginning of what I call holiday magic.

Setting the house up for Christmas is something special to me beacuse of my grandparents. If they could, they would leave their Christmas tree up all year round in their home. I have way too many tubs in my basement filled with Christmas stuff and creating the tradition of setting up for Christmas as a family was really important to me.

I love taking my children to look at pretty Christmas lights soley because when I was a child, on Christmas Eve, I seen a red flashing light in the sky and I thought it was Rudolph's nose. I fixated on that for a really long time because of how powerful the Christmas magic was in my house. I want my kids to have the same kind of love for the holiday season that I did and still do to this day. Where I live, there is this yearly event called Glow and it is basically an indoor light set-up. It has become holiday tradition to go and check out the light set ups.

All the holiday cooking you do, is filled with so much love for your family. I don't even have the right words to explain why this specific thing matters but it truly does. I love making holiday chex mix for my family members and baking cookies with my children.

I did Elf on the Shelf one year during COVID. It is such a cool family tradition to start with your children. My mom started it when we were like teenagers so it wasn't as "magical" as it could have been but she still wanted to do something fun and creative for Christmas to get us into the holiday spirit. I personally will pass on this one for my own kids. I do like seeing how creative other people can get with their Elf on the Shelf ideas. I watched a video on TikTok this past week about the Elf colouring on their kids faces in the middle of the night and I thought that was pretty great.

I have made it tradition to take my kids to see Santa Claus every year. Today, I got to take my kids again and the look on my oldest child's face was everything. He was utterly star struck.

Little things during this time of the year matter the most to the kids. Holiday season is meant for you to slow down and focus on that. It's not about the presents or the money you spend, it is the quality time that you spend with your family. I think a lot of parents lose sight of that.

I was actually told a story while bartending that this man gambled away his whole paycheck (that was meant for Christmas) and lost it all. He thought he was going to win big and be able to buy all the big ticket items his children wanted but in the end he just blew it all away. That's why I say, the little things matter more than the big things.

I love being a parent during the holiday season. I start chipping away at my holiday list in the months before December so that things can be affordable for my family. I think that is a good piece of advice for any new parent. I remember when my son was a baby, I bought him Christmas presents in July that year.

It's not about the matching holiday pjs, or the aesthetic Christmas card, it's about making memories. Things like building a snowman together, watching holiday movies together as a family or looking at lights. Your kids, just want your time. That's really all that they want in the end.

I love Christmas, and I love Christmas even more now that I have children. I cannot wait to keep creating memories with them and instilling the Christmas magic in them that was given to me as a child.

Chloe Rose Violet🌹

I wrote this post as one of my holiday prompts for December. You can check that post out down below.